Promoting commandaria wine is a duty towards our history and the residents of the area that produces it, said Cyprus' Deputy Minister of Tourism, Kostas Koumis, who toured on Saturday the mountainous area of Limassol and the commandaria wine producing villages.

Koumis, who was accompanied by the Commissioner for the Development of Mountain Communities Charalambos Christofinas and other officials, visited the community of Vouni, and the building where the Sommelier School is expected to be housed, a project supervised by the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) followed by a visit to the Museum of the History of Commandaria, in Zoopigi village, while he also met with the local community leaders.

He also visited the community of Kapilio, where he had a meeting with the community leader Andreas Antoniou and the heads of the Community Councils of the other 13 commandaria producing villages, where they discussed issues that concern local producers “and the need for further promotion of the national drink of Cyprus”, an announcement by the Deputy Ministry said.

Koumis said that his Deputy Ministry, recognising the historic value of the commandaria wine, has drawn up a series of actions to enhance its visibility and promotion, with the aim of further highlighting it as a very special local wine, noting that it was a duty towards our history and towards the residents of the commandaria producing villages.

He said that commandaria wine deserved more enhanced visibility and that mistakes have been made in the past.

Referring to the Commandaria Museum in Zoopigi and the mansion it is housed in, Koumis said that it was never used the way it deserved and that, they have already started a study on the matter and once the ownership issue is overcome, they would submit a proposal for its renovation, accompanied by a tourism promotion plan.

The Deputy Minister stressed that the promotion of local wines was the responsibility of the state and required many different actions, noting that an integrated plan was needed.